Toshiba REGZA 42RV530U 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

Bought my 42 inch Toshiba Regza at Costco for $999 plus tax. The HD tuner picked up over a dozen local channels over the air. You will need an HD antenna. I continue to be amazed on a daily basis at the beautiful picture quality. You will be surprised at how strange some of the news reporters look like up close in 1080.

The built in speaker are very good and I still haven't bothered to hook up the hifi system.

The tv does generate quite a bit of heat and I suppose will help keep living room warm in the winter.

This is an amazing tv. A great value for the money.

We were happy with the quality of the picture on this tv. I am sorry I didn't research the set more carefully before we purchased it because it broke down within 2 months, as I see many other sets did. The set is under warranty; however we can't seem to get it repaired. Toshiba has been telling us that the appropriate parts are "on backorder" for weeks. They cannot give us an expected repair date. They refuse to replace the set. We will not buy from Toshiba again.

It's a great set with a super picture. Connected to my Sony Blu-Ray BDP-S350 over HDMI, it's truly lifelike. Now that it's under $1000, it's really hard to beat. Off-angle viewing is great all around my living room.

The Toshiba 42RV530U 42" LCD is my second HD TV. It replaced a four year old Panasonic 37" Plasma that had just gotten too old and was only 720p. Making the upgrade to this beautiful TV was amazing! The picture is clear, sharp, and mostly accurately colored. 4 HDMI inputs is very useful since I have a DVD player, stereo system, and game console that all need an HDMI jack. The bezel on this TV is very narrow, giving the TV a sleek, modern look that is accentuated by the piano, gloss-black finish. The controls are easy to use, and the menu makes a lot of sense when navigating. One feature that I especially like is the ability to change input without hitting a button repeatedly. You can change input by selecting the input menu, and then scrolling through the options. This can be done with two operations in about a second. Another feature I really like is the clarity of connection when plugging my laptop into the TV and using it as a monitor at full 1080p resolution (I use a DVI-HDMI cable). The picture is clear, sharp, and allows me to play games with zero lag.
If you're on a budget and don't care about 120hz processing, you cannot go wrong with this TV!

My one quibble with this TV is that it takes a little while to start up. Maybe 5-6 second. Not really a complaint, but worth mentioning.

And to those of you knocking the sound, you cannot expect a flat panel TV to have excellent sound. Spend the $300 for a stereo system (even less for a 2.1 system). No flat panel has good sound quality, I don't care how much you pay.

I have been looking at LCDs & Plasmas for over a year now. I purchased the 42RV530U due to it's excellent picture. I think many stores don't set the picture settings appropriately or purposefully set-up the higher priced models to look better than the competition. Google the optimal settings for this TV and then see if the store will let you change the settings. I was amazed. This TV is awesome. SD looks great. Got mine at Sears w/ 0% financing and a price match from a Circuit City ad. User reviews for this model are very high...not sure where the CNET folks get their opinions.